Page 68 of Cosmic Soul

Chapter 28

An uninvited guest.

I sat in the amphitheater between Serlotminden and Kalvoxrencol. Seth was on Pest’s other side. Even though he didn’t have a vote, Seth was allowed to attend because he was Kalvoxrencol’s mate, and therefore a prince consort. Father and Mother sat on a pair of thrones, elevated upon a dais, in the center of the arena. Chief Yomqin was on Mother’s left and Uncle Jemtonkilsol, Monqilcolnen’s father, was on Father’s right, as he was Father’s advisor. Hallonnixmin and his mate, Gilvaxtin, were seated just off the dais.

“Do you know what this is about?” Serlotminden asked, leaning closer to me, making his stool creak under his weight.

“No,” I said, and Kalvoxrencol shook his head.

“Did Caleb come?” Seth asked, clinging to Kalvoxrencol.

“No,” I replied. “He’s not allowed.”

Kalvoxrencol raised an eyebrow, and Serlotminden laughed before jabbing me with his sharp elbow. “Who would know besides you?”

Yes, no one would’ve known if he came, but I needed to be honest and to follow the laws.

“Seriously, Zoltilvoxfyn,” Kalvoxrencol started, “you should have brought him. I wouldn’t have left Seth behind.”

“Difference, you two are bound, and I’m not as comfortable breaking laws as you are, Pest.”

Kalvoxrencol immediately drew back like I’d struck him. Seth wrapped an arm around his waist and glared at me, round cheeks red, and I assumed this blush was caused by anger, not embarrassment. Serlotminden caught my eye, and I easily read the disapproval.

A dark cloud surrounded me as I stared at the floor, swallowing. I hadn’t intended to hurt Kalvoxrencol, but Seth and his relationship was different from mine and Caleb’s. We would never be recognized as mates by anyone other than my family. I hadn’t even told my parents, Hallonnixmin, Dontilvynsan, or Monqilcolnen because I was afraid of how they would react.

A loud bang sounded as Chief Yomqin thumped his wood staff on the ground, calling the Cohort into session. The low conversations around the amphitheater disappeared.

Father stood, pushing his long black hair over his broad shoulders. The severe expression on his face made my soul thrum in worry. Father wasn’t a joyous person, but the hardness of his countenance meant the reason this meeting was called wasn’t something trivial, not that I’d thought it would be—the full Cohort wasn’t called for anything less than an emergency.

“Last night, a ship appeared within our borders. Its make is something that we and the Coalition have never seen before. Isent Captain Dontilvynsan to investigate, but the ship’s shields are impenetrable to our sensors. I have reached out to the Coalition, and they are sending reinforcements as well as a team of scientists.

“We do not know why they are here, or what they want, but we must be prepared,” he finished.

Everyone was silent for a few moments as we absorbed the information. An older woman with gray scales, whose name I didn’t recall, stood. “Do we know where they came from?”

“No,” Chief Yomqin replied. “They appear to have slipstream technology, but the energy pattern is not the same as that of the xoi.”

“Can we see their ship?” an older warrior with jagged orange scales asked. Gaxbin had retired from the Planetary Navy before joining the Cohort—they’d been one of Dontilvynsan’s superior officers for several cycles, so I’d met them socially as well as seen them in Cohort meetings a few times.

Father clicked a few things on his screen before he said, “Captain Dontilvynsan, you are connected with the Cohort.”

My second eldest brother appeared. His hulking form was seated on the captain’s stool of his ship. He stood, which made him even more enormous. He was the largest of all my brothers in height and frame. His scales were black like mine, though the skin peeking around his scales was green and white. He resembled the rest of us with our mother’s green eyes and our father’s long nose and wide forehead.

“Emperor Kontolmakqilnen,” he said formally, tilting his head to the side and offering his throat. “Empress Vyn. Honorable Cohort.”

“Show us the ship,” Chief Yomqin ordered.

Dontilvynsan complied, and the ship appeared on the screen on the back of the amphitheater. It was pure white and shaped like a wedge. The metal was perfectly smooth without theslightest seam or bump. The foreign ship was huge, bigger than our warships and similar in size to our long-haul transport ships. Whatever this ship had been built for, I doubted it was for war. It would lack maneuverability. Though perhaps their weapons were advanced enough they weren’t concerned about whether they would have to evade attacks or possibly flee.

I leaned toward Kalvoxrencol and whispered, “I don’t think that is a warship.”

“Are you sure?”

“No, but the size of it.” I shook my head. “This might be an accident. They have slipstream technology. It’s possible mechanical issues threw them into our space. It has happened before. Remember two cycles ago when that xoi ship was thrown into our space and almost crashed into one of our moons. It hadn’t been anything more than a technical malfunction.”

Kalvoxrencol stood, wings slipping out of the slits of his shirt before he drew them back in place. The last time he’d spoken to the Cohort was when he was answering for his crime of crashing into a space station; at that time, he’d been on the floor, in the center, and we weren’t allowed to do anything more than watch.

“Might this not be an accident?” he asked, voice remaining even, though his tail wiggled with tension.

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